


A Crystal, Nothing More

by LadyRamora



Category: FFXIV, Final Fantasy XIV, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers - Fandom
Genre: An attempt at writing everyone's fave Friend Shaped Shade, Emet-Selch is Tired, Feels, Gentle Giant Hythlodaeus, Hythlodaeus Is Shaped Like a Friend, Hythlodaeus POV, Mentions of That Person, Other, Sad, Snarky Emet-Selch, Third Person POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:08:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29054898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRamora/pseuds/LadyRamora
Summary: Emet-Selch waits. The shade of his old friend sits with him.
Relationships: Emet-Selch & Hythlodaeus (Final Fantasy XIV)
Kudos: 15





	A Crystal, Nothing More

….

He finds him laying on his back in the grass, donned in a familiar robe, his mask discarded in the grass, his head tipped back as if to gaze up at the firmament. It would be a familiar pose if not for exhaustion in his face, the heavy, tired shadows under his closed eyes. He looked far too weary, his old friend. As if the life and fight seeped out of him the longer he lay there.

“How long do you intend to stand there?” His friend mutters sourly, pressing a hand to his head as if it ached, but not yet opening his eyes to pin him with that usual golden eyed glower.

“However long it takes for you to acknowledge me, old friend,” Hythlodaeus replies.

His friend makes a sound low in his throat like a laugh, but there is no humor to it. No smiles to be had, but a sneer that curled his lips as he replies, “What need have I to acknowledge you who does not truly exist? Why must you pester me so?”

Hythlodaeus hums, his robe swishing as he walks closer to gaze down at the man. “Because, old friend.. Nay, recreator. This is what you made me for, no?”

His face twitches, his hand sliding up to grip tight at the shock of his white hair. He grinds his teeth, hissing through them. “Is that what you think? What I made you for has yet to come to pass,” he pauses, sliding his gloved hand over his tired face. “…They have yet to arrive.”

Hythlodaeus raises a hand to face, chuckling. Fufu. “You forget, venerable Emet Selch, I know what you know. I am aware of my purpose as much as you are.”

He settles down next to the much smaller man, casting a large shadow over him. Blocking out the glowing lamps above them. Emet Selch glares at him, but there is no fire in the pale gold of his eyes.

“I regret making you so much like him,” Emet Selch grumbles.

Hythlodaeus smiles down at him, his eyes squinting with pleasure. “I am as you made me, old friend. If you wish, you could destroy me and start anew. Perhaps I might annoy you less?”

His friend does laugh at that. One short, sharp bark. His smile is sharp and unkind, but he would take it over the miserable image his friend made before, lying so still and quiet, all alone. As if he, too, were dead.

“An amusing notion, as I do not think that would ever be possible. No,” Emet waves his hand, wrist limp. Not snapping his fingers, but Hythlodaeus hadn’t expected he would. “You are as I made you, mistake or no. Rest assured, you are not eternal. You will fulfill your purpose and then you, too, will fade.”

Hythlodaeus stares down at his friend. Saddened. “And what of you?”

Emet Selch scoffs. “ _I_ _?_ ”

Hythlodaeus pokes his forehead, making the man grunt and jerk. “Yes, you.”

Emet Selch swats his hand away.

“You are lonely,” Hythlodaeus says, blunt and simple.

Emet Selch bristles. “…You!”

Hythlodaeus reaches into the folds of his robe and then holds out his fist, dropping a familiar gold shape onto Emet Selch’s robes. A crystal that should not exist. “You could have recreated them,” the shade says quietly. “Instead, you chose him. Made me.”

Emet Selch stares down at the crystal on his chest with hardened eyes, then tilts his head back to look into the shade’s masked face. “You… _He_ belonged here. He was always here. _They_ were not. For the purpose that I recreated you, _that person_ would not have suited.”

Hythlodaeus hums, reaching out to tap a finger over the crystal. A color golden as a sunbeam and just as warm to the touch. Even he could feel that. “…You wanted to see them again, but it hurt too much. Your heart.”

“ _Shut up!_ ” The words are spat at him with such venom that Hythlodaeus raises his hands up in surrender. Touched a nerve. But he knew it was still a sore subject, even after so long. He reaches out again to pluck the crystal up and tuck it safely away again, but Emet Selch slaps a hand over it, the crystal resting on his heart.

“You want to see them so badly?” His friend snarls. No, Hythlodaeus did not want anything. His wants were not his, after all. He was just a shade. A recording. Something to pass over information. But he does not say this, only smiles at his friend. That smile that annoyed him to no end. The smile that his friend remade perfectly just to see again, to be annoyed by once more. Ah, nostalgia was ever a bittersweet emotion. This Emet Selch knew, and thus so did the shade of Hythlodaeus.

“Here. Look here,” Emet Selch hisses, and the crystal in his hand glows for a moment before a beam of light shoots out, a projection taking form in the shape of _that person_ for a few short seconds before it changes with the snap of Emet Selch’s fingers. Taking the shape of someone else. “ _This_ is what they are now!” His friend says with rage, with despair. He closes his hands over the crystal, snuffing out the golden light and dispersing the projection.

Hythlodaeus stares down at the man sadly as Emet Selch presses a gloved hand to his face.“Go. Away.”

Hythlodaeus plucks the crystal from his recreator’s hand when he offers it. He moves to stand, but pauses when a gloved hand catches the material of his robes.

Weary golden eyes stare up at him from a gaunt face. “…I did not mean you.”

Hythlodaeus smiles, settling back down. “Am I not bothering you?”

Emet Selch’s lips twitch. “Always, but it is tolerable. I made you that way, after all.”

Hythlodaeus dips his head in a nod, “That you did.” He tilts his head back, gazing up towards the barrier shielding them from the crushing water of the ocean.

Emet Selch closes his eyes, answering his question without the shade needing ask. “Not long now.”


End file.
